The present invention relates to a table football game with actuating rods carrying player pieces, by means of which all the ways of playing the ball on the field of a real football game can be imitated on the playing field of the table football game.
In the table football game with actuating rods disclosed in Swiss Pat. No. 197,003, the spaces between the rods are so arranged that the ball can only be reached when it is disposed at any location in the playing zone except midway between two adjacent rods in the playing field. When the ball is in this middle position, mid-way between two adjacent actuating rods, the players must manually move the ball into a different position so that it can again be reached and played by the dummy player pieces on the actuating rods. Accordingly, table football games with actuating rods cannot be covered by a protective sheet of glass and because of this the players are free to steal the ball or, instead of inserting a coin in the device provided for that purpose, can play without paying for the game by using their own ball. According to the above Swiss patent, this disadvantage is obviated by ensuring that the actuating rods and the height of the dummy playing figures on the rods are selected in such a way that the ball cannot occupy a dead spot in the playing field. However, if the dummy player pieces are not to touch one another in their horizontal positions, the largest radius of movement which the figures can describe about the center axes of the actuating rods must be so small that the ball can no longer be displaced at the desired speed because of lack of leverage. In addition, the rods are disposed so close to one another that they obstruct the movements of the players' two hands on the handles of the actuating rods.